One Final Mission
by That GF FAN
Summary: Stanford and Dipper venture into the woods of Gravity Falls one more time before heading their separate ways. The reason, Ford does not wish to say. Just yet that is. (Cover art by maplespyder on Deviantart)


The breeze of a cool September afternoon in Piedmont blew through the trees. At the end of a quiet drive way on a nice little street lay a lovely little house. A nice two story little home it was, a few flowers in the front yard, a nice minivan in the driveway and a mailbox that said Pines. Home. The real home of Dipper and Mabel Pines that is.

Dipper was in his and Mabel's bedroom reading a book. It was a quiet Friday afternoon. The end of a long first week back to school. Dipper felt lucky. His and Mabel's homeroom teacher was a pretty laid back one. Thus, for this first weekend that had no homework which gave him some time to finish reading some books he still did not complete from his summer reading list. Summer may have been over but the season itself still had 2 weeks left.

At that moment Dipper hears a tap on the window. He turns around and saw one odd sight indeed. He runs over to the window and opens it.

"GRUNKLE FORD" he says.

"Oh hello Dipper, nice to see you again, how's it going" he replies.

Dipper was obviously confused. What was Ford doing in California when he and Stan were supposed to be sailing the world?

"What are you doing here, I thought you and Grunkle Stan left days ago" he asks.

"We were supposed to but, well, something came up and, listen Dipper. I need you to come back to Gravity Falls with me. Just for a few days that's all" Ford said.

"Uh, look Grunkle Ford, I would love to but now is not a good time. I have school and stuff. I wanted to just spend this weekend reading. My teacher is giving us a huge assignment next week and I won't get this free time back for a while" Dipper says.

"I know Dipper. I understand the inconvenience. But this is serious. Its about. Its about Bill" Ford says.

Dipper looks at Ford shocked. "It's that serious" he says.

Ford nods his head. "I'm afraid so. We can't waste any time" he replies.

"Okay then. But what about Mabel? And my parents? They would never allow me. They don't even know who you are properly let alone who Bill is" says Dipper.

Ford climbed into the room. "Don't worry I have that covered. Wait here" he says.

Ford walked into the living room. There was a zap and then he returned. Dipper ran to see what had happened before returning quite furious.

"YOU FROZE MY PARENTS AND MABEL!" he screamed.

"Don't worry. Its temporary. I got this puppy off some drunk guy in a lab coat with blue hair in a game of poker once in my multiverse travels. We won't take too long and they won't even know your gone. Now hurry we can't waste anytime" Ford says.

"I can't believe I'm doing this" Dipper says to himself as he climbed into the Stan mobile.

"Now you might want to buckle up. Its non-stop to Gravity Falls. If you get hungry there's a bag of dollar burgers somewhere" Ford says.

Before Dipper could respond Stanford floored it and they speed off. Next stop, Gravity Falls.

After a long drive and inevitably a few stops along the way to "drain the tanks", fill up, talking about life, mystery and politics of course, the duo arrived into town just as the sun began to set. Throughout it all, Ford remained tight lipped about the issue with Bill.

Once back at the Mystery Shack, Dipper began to ask the obvious.

"I know Wendy has school so where's Grunkle Stan and Soos" he asks.

"Oh well your Soos friend is back at his home getting some stuff and Stanley is down in Newport getting our boat ready. I told him I had some business to take care of here so I'd meet him up again soon" says Ford.

"Okay but Grunkle Ford, can you please tell me what's this thing with Bill? You've been all mysterious about it but I want to know too" asks Dipper.

"Dipper I know you have questions and I promise I'll answer them but right now its late, you should probably get to bed, we have much to do tomorrow" says Ford.

Knowing he won't let up on what is going on, Dipper obliges and falls asleep on the couch. Hopefully the next morning will shed some light on the mystery hanging over his head.

Morning dawned. Dipper was awakened by the sound of metallic objects being taken outside.

Suddenly Ford shook him awake.

"Dipper wake up we have much to do come on" Ford yelled as he ran outside.

A still very tired Dipper walked slowly behind.

"Why couldn't we have breakfast first" he asked.

"Don't worry we'll stop at Greasy's and buy something now come on, we're burning daylight" yelled Ford as he floored it again down the driveway.

After stopping at Greasy's Diner and buying some breakfast, the two continued driving. It must have been a good fifteen minutes before they reached their destination. A small parking lot near a nature trail. Once parked Ford asked Dipper to help him unload the equipment from the car.

Dipper thought as he walked back there that there would be some futuristic machinery that Ford had constructed to help them deal with Bill. A laser gun, a gun sword, an actual gun, maybe even a portable unicorn hair barrier. He was not prepared for what Ford had actually brought.

"Grunkle Ford are we dealing with Bill or an army of mole people" said Dipper.

What Stanford had actually brought was a bag of dirt, two weather beaten shovels, two sledgehammers, a rifle, a little portable wheelbarrow and a hammer and chisel.

"Trust me Dipper, this is all we need" he replies.

"Well how should I know when you've been so secretive up till now" says Dipper.

"Ya I guess I owe you an explanation. Help me carry this stuff and I'll explain on the way" Ford replies. At last answers.

The two walked deeper and deeper into the woods. As they neared their destination, Ford began to talk.

"So you know how when we defeated Bill he had to enter Stanley's mind."

Dipper nodded.

"Well in order for him to do that he had to leave his physical form and become his mindscape form. In that process he left his physical form here. And there it is" says Ford pointing to something in the distance.

Dipper looked on. There sitting quietly at the end of a clearing, it lay. The Bill Cipher statue. In all it's terrifying glory. All that was left of Bill's hell was this small grey statue that nature was now reclaiming.

"Is, is that Bill" asked Dipper as they neared it.

"No of course not. Bill was defeated for good. He is no longer out there, or a threat to us or the multiverse. However, this statue does have a concerning factor to it" says Ford.

"What's that" Dipper asks.

"During one of his memory lapses, Stanley yelled something about and Axolotl and Bill. It reminded me of an ominous message I was told by the Oracle in Dimension 52. She said that even if I was able to defeat and kill Bill, the Axolotl shall decide his final fate."

"So your saying that there is a chance that Bill might still be alive" asks Dipper.

"No not at all. Well at least I hope so. From what the Oracle said to me, The Axolotl is a wise being, older then our universe and all other universe's combined. He very well knows as much as I do of the risks of sparing Bill. But he also has a very big heart. One that could redeem even the most despicable of beings. While my concerns are of the minimum, if there is even a small possibility that the Axolotl gave Bill as second chance, it must be taken seriously."

"So what does this statue have to do with Bill" asks Dipper.

"Well I discovered it a few days ago which made me choose to hold back while Stanley went to get the boat ready. This statue is basically Bill's physical form. If he is under that small circumstance, alive and out there, this statue is all that he needs to come back. All it will take is another fool like me to speak that incantation and it will be Weirdmageddon all over again. As far as I can tell, Bill is no longer out there and hopefully never will be again. But we cannot take any chances as we have learned that the hard way" says Ford.

"So what do we do" asks Dipper.

"There is only one answer to this problem. Get rid of Bill's passage back into our realm" says Ford.

He picks up the sledgehammer from the wheelbarrow, lifts it high into the air, and in the next moment with one move….

SMACK!

He strikes the statue on it's arm, breaking it off. Ford proceeds to hit the broken arm of the stature repeatedly till it is nothing but dust.

"We destroy the statue and disperse the remains" he says looking down at Dipper.

Dipper looks up at Ford with an expression both with shock and with anger.

"Grunkle Ford are you kidding me! You drag me all the way here, freeze Mabel and my parents, and keep me in the dark for this long only to reveal to me that the answer to defeating Bill once and for all is to destroy a statue? Which I might add, is something you could have easily done by yourself or with Grunkle Stan's help" he yells.

"Well Dipper I, uh" …...

"Grunkle Ford, why did you bring me here? Something is telling me this was not the only reason. You promised that there would no longer be any secrets between you and me, yet you kept this a secret until now? WHY" says Dipper.

Stanford realized Dipper was not happy. He kneeled down next to his great nephew.

"Well Dipper. You see, I missed you. I mean, adventuring with you was fun. And I guess I'm not entirety over the fact you decided to go home. I mean, it was the right thing to do and I am so proud of you for doing that, but I guess part of me still wanted you to stay" he says now also with a sad expression on his face.

Dipper's expression changed from cross to concerned. He looked up at him. "Grunkle Ford, is that true" he said.

"A bit. I did not realize until it was too late what wanting you to stay would have done. Stanley would have been homeless, your friends would be out of a job, and Mabel, well, well knowing what happened to Stanley, I do not want even one percent of that to happen to her. I guess it only came to me when I saw how well you two worked together. Wanting to separate you two was the dumbest decision I ever made next to making that deal with Bill all those years ago. I don't want you two to live a life of loneliness and depression. But at the same time, deep down, my selfish scientific side longed to adventure with you" says Ford.

Dipper looked up to Stanford. "Grunkle Ford, I know what you mean. I mean while I am glad I made the choice I did too, part of me still wonders what we might have done together. But I mean I know logically like you do it would have been a disaster. But I think, I think we have to give our new lives a chance. We both got consumed by Gravity Falls and when reality knocked at our doors, we tired to hold it back. I guess Mabel was right when she told me I do take things a bit too seriously sometimes" he says.

"Ya well that makes two of us. I'm sorry Dipper. I should have told you about this before hand. I just thought that maybe you would not have come. If you want I can drive you back home right now. I know you want to get back there" says Ford.

Dipper looks at him. "Well I mean, would I have come along if I knew we were actually destroying a statue of Bill rather then fighting the real Bill. No I guess. But at the same time, the whole reasoning you gave me has sort of made the whole dilemma more intense then before. I think if you told me that after the whole statue part, I would have come along" says Dipper.

He picks up the other sledgehammer. "And as for going home."

Dipper strikes the statue's bowtie. "You did not freeze my family, keep me in the dark and drive me here only to not complete the mission now did you Grunkle Ford" he says as he hits the statue again. "I'm not leaving until this statue is nothing but dust."

Ford smiled. "Haha now that's the spirit. Thank you Dipper. And hey, there was another reason I wanted you of all people to help me. I read Mabel's page about how Bill possessed you. By the way, you owe her for those Ice Cream sandwiches. Anyways, I saw how much Bill hurt you so I knew this would be to you as it is to me, the closet we can ever get to making Bill feel the pain we both had to endure when he possessed us" he replies.

"Oh please Grunkle Ford. If you leave me here for an hour, I'll have this thing reduced to sand with the amount of anger I have in me" says Dipper as he strikes the statue again.

The two get to work. They hit the statue multiple times with the sledgehammers, knocking it down piece by piece. They beat it with the shovels, chisel it, Ford even fires a few rounds into it and by lunch time that afternoon, they had the statue reduced to nothing but dust.

"Phew that took a while. So now what" asks Dipper.

"We scatter the remains until there's non-left" says Ford.

And so they do that. After loading the statue dust into the dirt bag in the wheel barrow, they carry it back towards the car, throwing pieces of the statue dust around in their path to scatter it as much as possible. Once they make it back to the car there is no piece of the statue left.

"Mission accomplished Dipper. Now Bill will never be a threat to our universe again" says Ford.

"But what about the cave? What if someone finds it and recites the incantation in it and in the small chance he is out there, Bill returns" says Dipper.

"Not to worry. I took care of that too. Let's just say I found a group of people who will "spray the place" nicely if you know what I mean" says Ford winking.

Dipper takes a moment but soon he gets what Ford is saying. The two have a laugh about it.

The drive back was filled with talk and excitement. Ford talked about his and Stan's adventure plans while Dipper talked about what his plan for his final year before high school was. Both had a respectable future ahead of them and both were eager to get started. Now with the last hurdle to jump in a million pieces, the path ahead lay clear for both of them.

The sun had already set as the Stan mobile pulled up into the Pines residence.

A very tired Dipper climbed out. "So your saying the effects of the freeze ray may have worn off right" he says.

"Yes. As far as Mabel and your parents will know, they were asleep for all of Saturday while you were upstairs reading" says Stanford. "Well Dipper, I guess this is goodbye."

Ford got out to shake Dipper's hand. Only to be surprised at Dipper giving him a hug. He was surprised. Dipper never hugged anyone let alone him of all people. He kneeled down and hugged him back.

"Be safe Dipper. Keep Mabel safe. And remember to never let anyone take you down" Ford says.

"You too Grunkle Ford. Hey, make sure you don't pull all over your hair out when Grunkle Stan starts telling those joke of his" says Dipper as he begins to walk back home.

"Wait what does that mean" asks Ford.

"Trust me, you'll figure it out" says Dipper. He waves Ford goodbye one last time before he walks through the front door.

Stanford gets back into the car and begins the long drive to Newport to meet up with Stan and fulfill at long last their childhood dreams of sailing the world together. Over 40 years late, but better now then never.

One final mission accomplished, and a new mission now underway. They're going their sperate ways.


End file.
